Thank you to all who attended our first Online Purchase to Pay Network Event on March 7th 2023.
The agenda was busy as we were covering two hot topics: Direct Debit and Advanced payment process.
We started our session by introducing our new Co-Chairs: Malgorzata Mendyk-Ebonine and Nicole Moore who have the pleasure to support the PTP Network alongside Joanna Baines this year.
We discovered during our first sli.do warm-up session that for 49% of attendees it was the first PTP Network Event ever. It is great news, as new members means for us new relationships, more networking, new insights, lessons learnt and new ideas.
Next, our members shared their business goals for this month. The list was quite long showing how busy we all are with our improvement plans: automation, business compliance, process improvements, PPT performance, cash forecasting and culture shift were mentioned by our attendees.
Then we went through sli.do questions related to Direct Debits. We were looking at our biggest process challenges in this area. We looked at how to work with vendors who are paid by different payment methods. We also discussed the approval workflow and checked how many of us have the Direct Debit policy in place.
Next, there was time for our breakout session. We were divided into six groups in order to brainstorm on the pro’s and con’s of the Direct Debit process, alongside improvements and know how to build strong and agile relations with suppliers. It was an amazing opportunity to know everyone’s process pain points and to share the lesson learnt across our SSF community. We realised that even though the Direct Debit process may present multiple challenges for Payables team, it can also be a valuable tool to prevent business disruption related to late payments. Important learning from the sessions shows that a good Direct Debit policy is key to control.
We had a great member contribution regarding Direct Debit. Sam Butler and Josh Wright from ISS Facility Service UK shared their journey on how they set themselves up for a future DD approach to drive controlled, positive outcomes for all stakeholders in the process. It was an amazing presentation which is a true success story. Thank you again for sharing with us your experiences and all the valuable ways of working which may be potentially implemented in other companies.
The second sli.do session and hot topic discussion was the advance payment process. We started with defining our biggest process challenges, followed by prepayment requisition process, workflow and control framework. We then moved on to our group discussion. We brainstormed around advantages and disadvantages of the prepayment process and potential improvements to be implemented. We realised as group that not a lot of our companies decided to do down payments / prepayments in the current financial situation. Additionally we have learned that the members who allow these types of payments typically use pre-approval to disincentives advance payments. This is a very good learning to understand the leading industry practices and will be a good consideration for members currently struggling with the process.
The last Slido gave us a few ideas for the next sessions. Our members would like to discuss more topics related to automation, cash forecasting, service metrics and supplier relationship.
You can find the entire list on our website together with the event recording.
It was a real pleasure to spend the morning with our network.
We encourage you to join us at Lonza Biologics in Manchester on July 4th 2023 from 10am - 3pm for the face to face Purchase to Pay network event. We are already working on the next agenda!!
